Billionaires, Colonisation & the Grenadier – Shortsighted or Shenanigans?

When Sir Jim Ratcliffe talks immigration, unemployment and “colonisation”, it exposes the hypocrisy at the heart of the modern global elite

A few days ago, headlines were dominated by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, co-owner of Manchester United. Founder and driving force behind the INEOS Grenadier, the same INEOS that is also part-owner of the Mercedes F1 team, and, oh, by the way, he is one of the richest men in Britain. His estimated net worth hovers around £17 billion, according to recent Rich Lists. This Knight of the Realm made remarks suggesting the UK was being “colonised” by immigrants. He referenced unemployment, claimed nine million people were on benefits, and linked immigration levels to economic strain.

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16/02/2026 0

Lord of the Flies Is Back on TV – But Was Golding Completely Wrong?

A real-world Lord of the Flies event and modern science both suggest that Golding’s darkest assumption about us may have been profoundly mistaken

Whenever Lord of the Flies resurfaces, as it now has with a dramatic new television serialisation, we are invited to revisit the same bleak conclusion: scratch the surface of civilisation and out spills the savage. Remove teachers, police, governments, parents, and apparently we revert to painted faces, sharpened sticks, and ritual murder before it’s coconut milk time.

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15/02/2026 0

The UK Is Punishing Drivers for Keeping Old Cars Alive

A tax system that claims to be green is quietly punishing drivers for preserving perfectly usable older cars – and the contradictions are impossible to ignore.

There is something deeply, almost comically broken about a system that tells you to consume less, waste less, and think about the planet, while simultaneously financially penalising you for keeping a perfectly usable car on the road. Yet that is precisely where the UK finds itself today. If you own an older car, a modern classic, or even a relatively ordinary early-2000s performance saloon, you may now be paying more in Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) than someone who has just driven out of a showroom in a brand-new supercar costing six figures. That isn’t hyperbole. It’s arithmetic. And it exposes the sheer lack of joined-up thinking in modern motoring policy.

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09/02/2026 0

UK VED Road Tax Changes for 2026 Explained

The £5,690 VED Shock, Modern Classics Trap & Why No Car Is Safe Anymore

From April 2026, the cost of owning a car in the UK shifts again. Not with a single dramatic ban or headline-grabbing announcement, but with a carefully calibrated set of Vehicle Excise Duty changes that, taken together, tell a very clear story. A story about who is being nudged. Who is being punished. And who, increasingly, is being priced out. In this piece, I’m going to walk you through every major UK road tax (VED) change coming in April 2026, using the actual Treasury tables, not speculation, not press-release gloss, and not the usual “this only affects rich people” dismissal. Because it doesn’t.

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07/02/2026 1

EV Charging VAT Cuts Reveal a Policy Being Made Backwards

Reports of a VAT cut on public EV charging feel less like progress and more like a late correction to the confusion created by pay-per-mile policy

Reports that the Government is preparing to cut VAT on public EV charging should be welcome news. Yet the timing tells a more troubling story. This move appears less like a long-planned correction and more like a hurried response to the growing unease around pay-per-mile road pricing, exposing an EV transition increasingly driven by reaction rather than strategy.

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14/01/2026 1

Pay-Per-Mile Will Destroy UK Driving – And They Know It!

The most damaging motoring Budget in decades has landed. And after a few days to think, the whole thing looks even worse

If you thought Pay-Per-Mile was “fair” or “inevitable”, you’re missing the biggest automotive disaster heading straight for Britain. I’ve had a few days to calm down after the Chancellor dropped the motoring equivalent of a tactical nuke into the nation’s glovebox with the Autumn 2025 Budget. But I haven’t calmed down. I’ve got angrier, more frustrated, and more convinced this Budget could cripple the UK car industry, humiliate disabled drivers, and utterly suffocate car culture. This isn’t a minor tweak. This is the start of a crisis.

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06/12/2025 1

Budget 2025 – Drivers Betrayed: Pay-Per-Mile Confirmed For EVs and PHEVs

The Budget drops the biggest anti-motorist bombshell in years – a full Pay-Per-Mile tax on electric and plug-in hybrid cars, plus luxury-tax hikes, Motability cuts and a fuel-duty freeze that expires in months

If you were hoping today’s Budget might go easy on motorists, then bless you for your optimism. Anyone paying attention knew this was coming, and yet it still feels like being slapped with a wet kipper. And just like that, buried beneath all the other headlines, comes the most consequential motoring announcement in years – one that will reshape the automotive landscape, hammer the car industry, and punish drivers across the country. The Government has now confirmed Pay-Per-Mile taxation for electric vehicles. Yes, it’s real. Yes, it’s happening. And no, it won’t stop at EVs.

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26/11/2025 6

The UK Economy Slows and the Car Industry Gets the Blame. Here Is the Real Story

A single cyber attack at JLR slowed the entire UK economy, revealing how vital – and how vulnerable – Britain’s car industry is

The UK woke up to a rather depressing figure this week. Economic growth from July to September came in at 0.1 per cent. The analysts thought we would hit 0.2 per cent, so already things looked a little feeble. The headlines called it a blow for the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves. The markets shrugged. Most of the public sighed into their morning tea.

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13/11/2025 1

Petrolhead ≠ Politically Incorrect: I don’t Rev for the Right, but nor do I Line-Lock for the Left!

Some think that if you enjoy the sound of a V8 and a whiff of burnt rubber, you’re a climate-denying dinosaur. Time to set the steering straight

I know that I’m pigeon-holed sometimes. And I know why. I love cars, especially big hairy monstrous motors that smoke their tyres and obliterate decibel detectors.

Yes, my name is Shahzad and I’m an Autoholic. I confess the thrum of a V8 turns me on, octane is my cologne, and a gear-snatching, wheel-twirling thrash up a twisty road is my therapy. Cyclists are annoying, traffic cameras are the enemy, and the Highway Code is a quaint little booklet that’s just the right thickness for the wobbly leg of my coffee table.

And most damning of all, I refuse to apologise for any of this.

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12/11/2025 0

Is Zohran Mamdani Anti-Car? What New York’s Motorists Need to Know

The Mayor doesn’t drive, but he’s steering New York’s future – and motorists might not like where the road’s heading

When a man who doesn’t even drive becomes the Mayor of New York City, you just know things are about to get interesting. Zohran Mamdani’s victory has made waves across the world – not just because he’s the first Muslim, first brown and first African-born mayor in NYC’s history, but because he represents something much bigger: a changing philosophy about how cities are built, who they serve, and – crucially for us car lovers – whether there’s still space for motorists in the urban future.

Now, before you reach for your pitchforks or your petrol can, let’s take a calm, and rational look at what this actually means for drivers.

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07/11/2025 0